Sony to force Blu-ray upon us

So while I was drinking a tea yesterday and watching some TV a weird yet logical thought past through my mind.

What if Sony had an alterative motive and plans for the Playstation 3. We all know that there are two competing High Definition formats for the new DVDs that will be released. Blue-ray and HD-DVD. In their current state, the PS3 is the only console that can play High Definition DVDs (the Xbox 360 requires an additional piece of kit to play HD-DVD).

Betamax vs. VHS – the fight for Video standards took place when Videos were launched. The same is due to take place between Blu-ray and HD-DVD for the industry standard of High Definition DVD.

What I am proposing is that Sony is trying to dominate the market and win the fight via a back door method. Such as, you’re not buying a games console with a DVD play in it, you’re buying a Blu-ray DVD player that can play console games. Yes the PS3 is a funky piece of kit, but it could be so much better for a games console if Sony put the ‘effort’ in (it’s this lack of effort that contributed to my suspicions). If Sony were really serious about the PS3 being a games console then why did they not spend more time getting the rumble feature to work with the motion sensitive controls / why could they not keep their new control designs / why could they not of actually had a proper motion sensitive controls rather than an axis driven one.

My thought is that they weren’t too fussed about the game console part and just wanted to focus on getting as many Blu-ray DVD players into people homes as possible before HD-DVD players became common place. PS3 owners, if you already have a High Definition player (your PS3), it is highly unlikely that you will purchase a HD-DVD player, thereby you will be supporting the Blu-ray format.

For Sony, having the Blu-ray format as the industry standard is worth so much more to them than possibly the fight in the next generation console war. Sure, they may sell a few hundred thousand units less, be loosing money per unit sold, but if Blu-Ray becomes the industry standard, Sony will make back all the lost money through licensing and DVD sales. Not to mention the contracts that they have with the film studios.

In summary, I feel that Sony have seen the launch of the PS3 as an opportunity to get Blu-Ray into people’s home and picked as the industry standard, rather than focusing on a game console.

actually if you look at the economics, the ps3 will fail if it doesn't sell blue ray movie titles. they loose 300 on every system at the moment. Thats a **** ton of games ps3 owners need to buy for sony to break even. Sony has used billions on cell (its cpu) and they are avoiding taxs in japan. I would say they need blue ray to become the hd standard to pull themselves out of debt, or they will cut their whole game division at the leg.

This makes alot of sense. The PS3 was designed poorly, yet the PS1 and PS2 were designed very well. Theres a blog page that explains about how terribly the PS3 hardware was designed and chosen, and it actually shows that 360 has more power in terms of games. If Sony is able to make Blu-Ray the high def standard, they would make much more money than lost as you said, and even possibly knock out HD-DVD out of competition. Now just think as games get bigger, and more compression needs to be done, and more advanced loading code, the generation after this current one could be in need of more than just dual layer discs, and Sony will have the answer, making even more money. Right now the only problom with their plan is that not very many people know what Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is, and if they do most people do not have a large high def television set in their hosuehold. I personally do not know very many with large high def sets, and I live in a pretty wealthy area.

Its sad though, because blue ray really will help games, (at least high def games).

take a 480 texture and make it for a 1080 game and the texture increases at a minimum of 4x its size. so while a dvd is just fine for a wii, as its never going to have a game that runs at a higher resolution then 480, the xbox 360 will. I don't know if it will ever run into major problems, but i know some devs do feel limited to the amount of textures they can use on the 360, and blue ray really will help games, sony just pushed it way too soon trying to take over hd dvds terf. and it might blow up in their face, as they cut coners to pack the ps3 with blue ray.

"If Sony were really serious about the PS3 being a games console then why did they not spend more time getting the rumble feature to work with the motion sensitive controls"

it's called not wanting to pay up for a product they do not own. Nintendo and microsoft payed the inventor of the rumble feature money to be able to use it, sony decided not to.

honestly there is nothing wrong with the way they developed their system. It plays games just fine. In fact their games look better than any other. No doubt sony will have greate titles for the ps3 just like they had for the ps2 and ps there is no reason why they are going to stop creating good games just like nintendo will continue making good games. The blu-ray is a one of the bigest thing's that the ps3 is for but when you think about it, who cares if it's a marketing scheme? so many companies do this. might as well stop whearing clothing with the words Old Navy, American Eagle, Abercrombie and fitch etc because they are advertising their product and they all want all the customers as much as their clothing designer rivals.

Its sad though, because blue ray really will help games, (at least high def games).

take a 480 texture and make it for a 1080 game and the texture increases at a minimum of 4x its size. so while a dvd is just fine for a wii, as its never going to have a game that runs at a higher resolution then 480, the xbox 360 will. I don't know if it will ever run into major problems, but i know some devs do feel limited to the amount of textures they can use on the 360, and blue ray really will help games, sony just pushed it way too soon trying to take over hd dvds terf. and it might blow up in their face, as they cut coners to pack the ps3 with blue ray.

Click to expand...

devs are actually worrying about the ps3 as it onlly has 256 mb of ram that can be used for graphics, and 256 mb for general purpose, the 360 has 512 mb genereal purpose, and anything that is shown on the screen has to go through the ram first

thats really interesting. i dident hear that. that would be funny if it were true. honestly though, i would prefer a 360 with blue ray, so devs can go wild with textures and game length, but have solid hardware to work with... when it doesent burn up that is... heheh *joke*

I heard the ps3 had some MAJOR defect in cell. something about memory architecture flaws and not enough memory in this one tiny spot that creats a major bottle neck. thats why i hear alot of ps3 games lag a bit and fall of man only runs at 30 and does alot of pre vis. You used to be able to type in "broken ps3" in google and get the article. cant find it anymore.

*found it*. I typed in pse insted of ps3 ahahah. so yeah, in google type in ps3 broken and theirs alot of things about the flaws of cell.

and you know oblivion, that only took up 5 gb of space, and that was bigger than zelda with much better graphics etc

Click to expand...

Im not doubting that the xbox 360 has more ram. its just the first I have heard about it. but its not like your info contradicts anything that i have heard before, so im very likely inclined to believe you.

i donno. I think the game looks ok, but something in me still goes ik. the animation is only so so and still feels choppy. it also isent very esthetically pleasing. its face creation tool though is really really nice, but most of the faces it makes are ugly (but still nicely textured). I know its a fantasy game but it feels to grimy and not in the good texture kind of way, and like i said I like my games to have a aesthetic zing. zeldas textures have so many hand painted details though that it makes me shiver. Thats some mad photoshop skills Nintendo has.

I think I would have played oblivion all the way through though, but it kept crashing ( I did update it ). I think it was the fault of my hacked firegl drivers so i could get maya to run right.

and im not saying zeldas a bad game, im just saying simply the graphics in oblivion are much better

Click to expand...

Please stay on topic.

@ Dark Void - I think you missed the point I was making. I wasn't talking about branding or advertising or innovation. I was trying to highlight the possibility that there is a different motive to the PS3 than what is made public to gamers.

Wii: DVD is a great choice, but the lack of the ability to play DVD movies is kinda silly.

360: HD-DVD. Probably a solid format, but you have to pay extra for the drive, and none of the games for the 360 will use this, since it isn't standard.

PS3: Blu-Ray. Too much focus on this, not enough focus on the love of the games.

This is just my opinion of course, and I don't even have any of these consoles yet. But still, I applaud Nintendo for sticking with what we know and love. DVD. The 360 also uses DVD's, and the games on that look bloody excellent. So forgive me if I don't see the need to push a new format this early. Maybe it would have been more beneficial for Sony to have released the Blu-Ray drives as an optional add-on a few years down the track. I dunno.

To release a console costing so much with a blu-ray player fitted at this specific time... looks Sony's Trojan Horse to me, carrying the blu-ray into the homes of the unsuspecting public.

Then again why make it sound so evil? Sony simply doesnt want to go through another betamax defeat... thats why they resort to the PS3, relying on the already famous brand name to help them beat the crap out of HD-DVD.

Bear in mind as well that Sony, contrary to nintendo, was never a company committed to gaming... they never cared for the game, they never pushed for innovations... they were just a company that profited from the snes cd case, and saw that the future of gaming was in cdz and bigger storage (a vision that nintendo for some reason didnt take as seriously as they should). All Sony ever cared about was selling as much of the medium as they could; the game itself was always the others' case (contrarily again to ninty, who bases the success of its own consoles on home titles).

@ Dark Void - I think you missed the point I was making. I wasn't talking about branding or advertising or innovation. I was trying to highlight the possibility that there is a different motive to the PS3 than what is made public to gamers.
__________________

ya i know, im just saying that i dont really care about that other motive as long as i can enjoy games.

I think Blu-Ray is the very reason that the PS3 will flop in the end...HD-DVD will win out and Blu-Ray will be the next betamax, leaving the PS3 a super-expensive game machine/paperweight. I say paperweight because crossplatform games ALWAYS look better for the 360 since its way easier to develop for and PS3 titles are ported from that.

Bear in mind as well that Sony, contrary to nintendo, was never a company committed to gaming... they never cared for the game, they never pushed for innovations... they were just a company that profited from the snes cd case, and saw that the future of gaming was in cdz and bigger storage (a vision that nintendo for some reason didnt take as seriously as they should). All Sony ever cared about was selling as much of the medium as they could; the game itself was always the others' case (contrarily again to ninty, who bases the success of its own consoles on home titles).

Click to expand...

Err, the reasons for Nintendo NOT choosing CD's over Carts are:
1. No loading times or Carts.
2. More durable (harder to break) carts. CD's get scratched extremely easily - Heck even some not-quite-right laser from the PSX and PS2 cansometims do it.
3. Carts are extremely difficult and generally less profitable to pirate. CD's were cheap and relatively easy to pirate.

Considering Nintendo has a major investment in the software developing market as well, they really couldn't risk themselves being ripped off. Why do you think Sony doesn't do many first party titles?

Considering most single-disk PSX games COULD fit onto a Cart anyway (Resident Evil 2 - Which was actually 2 disks, and Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2), storage space was only an issue for Squaresoft. Even then, most of the data from the Final Fantasy disks were replicated onto the other disks. The main difference is the FMV's - Which if they would have spent more time trying to compress, they'd have probably been okay.

But ye, I agree that Sony is just in it for the money. It's why they're trying to win people over with the cross-over into other multimedia (UMD's for example, as well as MP3 player etc...). Now that he public seem to be ready for online gaming and such (especially when free), Nintendo is bringing people what they want, rather than telling them what they want (You want a blu-ray player with a HDTV and you want more powerful CPU etc...)

^Yup, you read that correctly. Those are the technology companies backing HD DVD. If we were to tally the score right now, Blu-Ray took the cake and the table too. Get the facts, it really might expand your mind a bit.

Not like you can argue against the above FACTS anyway, but here, I will even go as far to see who is doing better financially. As most of us know, the companies that founded Blu-Ray are Sony and Philips Electronics and the ones that founded HD DVD are Toshiba and Hitachi. Here are the stock quotes:

HD DVD

Toshiba Stock at 5.04
Hitachi Stock at 58.80

Blu Ray

Sony Stock at 39.69
Philips Stock at 37.42

So you can clearly see there are two VERY stable companies that founded and are investing the most into Blu-Ray while HD-DVD has Hitachi that is actually making some money. Stability is key in the world of electronics. Anyone? Please, I would love to hear what you have to say to the above stated FACTS.